Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

sashank_kini-1 In The High Sign, our intelligent half-wit Buster trying his luck at shooting when he reads a newspaper ad wanting shooters at an amusement park shooting gallery. Our gypsy-like wandering hero lands up in a town, with an inter-title introducing him as a man going nowhere who's found anywhere and will land up somewhere. He steals a newspaper from the pocket of a guy and finds this ad; the guy later approaches Keaton and buys the same newspaper from him, not knowing that it was his own paper which Buster had stolen. Before entering the park, he tries his hand at shooting and evidently stinks at it. Yet, Keaton is happy that he took out the practice targets, always the one he wasn't aiming at, and he accepts the job once he enters the gallery. Before leaving to his office in the next room, the tall owner instructs him that he wants to hear the bell go off every time Buster shoots. This puts our hero in trouble as we know he has little skill at shooting.But Keaton is an intelligent half-wit, and so he devises an ingenious plan: he ties up a street dog to the bell and ties a meat bone close to the dog. Inside, when he steps on a lever kept hidden close to where he stands, the tied up meat will lower down. The tied up dog would try getting it and in its attempt cause the bell to ring each time the meat is lowered. This works very well until the dog sees a cat, a probability Buster never considered. While this is going on in the gallery, we are also taken to the owner's office in the next room where we realize that the owner is actually the leader of a murderous group of extortionists called Blinking Buzzards. The group is impressed with Buster's 'shooting skills' after hearing the bell go off every time and assign him the task of killing an old man who refuses to pay him money. Our intelligent half-wit acquiesces. Meanwhile, the target of this gang visits the shooting gallery along with his daughter and is impressed with Keaton's shooting ability. He requests Buster to protect him from the gang and our intelligent half-wit Buster, unaware that it's the same guy who's to be shot, acquiesces. The rest of the action continues at the old man's home. I found out Donald O'Conner, the funny-man from Singin' in the Rain considered Keaton as a major influence. The 'Make Em Laugh' number from the legendary musical reminds me of the Keaton sequence in The High Sign when Buster tries to evade the gang of Blinking Buzzards at the old man's house by jumping from one room to the other, tearing up walls and sliding through connecting windows. I doubt any of Buster's contemporaries could top him when it comes to nailing the excitement of physical comedy. Anything is possible in Buster's world, like the scene when he slams the door into one of the gang members and we see his head popping out through the door.Everyone including Buster himself considers him to be something he's not. He's not a shooter yet he's hired as a shooting gallery shooter as well as assassin as well as a guardian angel. And Buster plays along the situations creating comedy and craziness on the way. He likes exploring the possibilities of cinema and creativity in an age where cinema was still developing as a medium, and so he creates his world as he pleases. Take for example where he simply paints a hook on the wall and hangs his hat on it and it really does hang like there's an actual hook. That's how malleable and modifiable Keaton's world is. And High Sign is a high sign of what Keaton brings to the world of cinema.

ccthemovieman-1 This begins with Buster being a crook. First, he steals a newspaper from a man riding a merry-go-round. It turns out to be the biggest newspaper you have ever seen! He sees a "help wanted" ad for a worker in a shooting gallery. You must be "crack shot." Buster isn't, of course, but he cheats again and gets the job, thanks to a little (and very clever) scheme with a little dog. (Buster is not an honest man in this movie, but he sure is resourceful!).The arcade is run by a giant of a man (Charles Dorety?) who is a member of the Blinking Buzzards, a brutal secret group of extortionists and hit men. One of the men on their hit list is the town tightwad: "August Nickelnurser." The latter, knowing his days are numbered, walks by the arcade, sees Buster, and hires him as his bodyguard. The big villain-arcade owner (no name was ever given him) comes back, takes Buster to the Buzzards hideout, makes him a member and gives him his first assignment: kill Nickelnurser.Holy cow - Buster is both the bodyguard and the hired assassin for the same man!!! What to do?This fantastic premise - to be played out in the second half of the film, doesn't really get going until the final few minutes, unfortunately. We have to sit through a few meaningless scenes back at the arcade. However, when Buster, the target and his cute daughter, and all the Buzzards all wind up in the same house - a great house filled with trap doors....the finish is fantastic!

Clark Richards The High Sign---Buster: Our Hero…10/10.This film along with 'One Week' can be found as extras on the Buster Keaton DVD, "The Saphead". Although defined as 'short films' by virtue of their length, each movie running at about 20 minutes, both 'The High Sign' and 'One Week' are superior comedies to the feature film, 'The Saphead' which clocks in at 77 minutes. It is on the strength of these two short films that make the purchase of this DVD entirely worthwhile.There's really no need to explain in detail the unbelievable plot line. It's a comedy that plays out as logically as a dream. It works best if you accept the many predicaments Buster finds himself in. Whether he's hired with no reference to work the shooting gallery in an amusement park run by the gang The Flying Buzzards, or hired as a bounty hunter by The Flying Buzzards to kill a wealthy businessman, or, and this is the real stretch, hired as a body guard by the same wealthy businessman he was originally hired to kill.Just go with it. What works best in all Buster Keaton films are the many sight gags and the unbelievable physical comedy. In this film some of the best moments include Buster jerry rigging the shooting gallery with a bell, a rope, a dog and a bone. Or watching Buster snag a newspaper from someone riding on the Merry Go Round, it happens so fast you can't believe he actually did it. And of course, the amazing ending that takes place inside the customized house of the wealthy businessman he is trying to protect. Because the businessman is aware that his life is in danger, he has made his house a labyrinth of hidden walls, trap doors and removable paintings. The last 5 minutes of the film show Buster knocking off each of The Flying Buzzards inside the house. This physical comedy is the closest you'll ever come to seeing human beings act in real time to what would become the clear domain of animators some years later, such as those of the 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons. You won't believe your eyes.Highly recommended. This film is a lot of fun. 10/10.Clark Richards

captnemo This little gem of a movie is chock full of inventive gags that will keep you laughing. There are the usual physical ones, such as the house and its many entrances/exits. What had me intrigued were some of the sight gags as well. The dog and the bell was amazing to watch. Each and every corner in Keaton's world has something wondrous around it. The man was an amazing athlete, and it shows here. Watch for the weird guns throughout the film. They don't make sense but then again they don't have to.